Opposition refuse to give election costing guarantee

The Victorian Opposition is refusing to say if its election costings will be audited in accordance with national standards.

The Federal Opposition was forced onto the backfoot last week, amid revelations an analysis of its election costings, by a big accounting firm, did not meet Australian auditing standards.

The State Opposition will also have its policies costed independently before next month's election.

But the Opposition Leader, Ted Baillieu, will not say how thorough it will be.

"You'll be able to have full confidence in our costings," he said.

The shadow minister for finance, Robert Clark, says Labor has always used an independent auditor to cost its policies prior to an election.

He says submitting the Opposition's policies to Treasury alone is not a fair process.

"First of all they are not seen as independent when Opposition policies are costed but secondly they're not independent when Government policies are costed," he said.

"Government policies are prepared by the public service, the costing figures are prepared by the public service, and then other public servants are asked to review those costings. That can't be seen to be impartial."

The Treasurer, John Lenders, is sceptical.

"We have a Liberal Party track record [where they] say a whole lot of things, but don't get your policies costed," he said.